Fire

In every myth written about the gift of fire there is the tension between creation and destruction - light, warmth, renewal, and purification versus destruction, pain, loss and chaos. The gods who embodied fire were feared as much as they were revered. There is nothing like a flaming sword, flaming eyes, flaming hair or flaming breath to inspire knee-knocking terror. Still, the facination is visceral and I think we were as helpless as the suicidal moth to resist an offering of fire. It became our first technology, lifting us from an existence amongst the animals onto a path toward controlling the world around us. As we learned the ways fire could serve us, I can imagine it changed everything. We could extend our territory, our life expectancy and even the length of our days. At night, around a flickering campfire we could gather under the stars and socialize. We’d develop a common language to share information and make plans, and at some point we’d start telling stories. We’d tell stories about the jouneys we’d made and the animals we hunted, and the people we knew. We’d also create tales to explain the sun, the moon, and the stars and, closer to home, fire. We couldn’t explain what it was or how it worked, so I imagine we started with explaining how this magic came to us. It was a gift stolen from the gods, or retrieved by Grandmother Spider, or snatched from under the Ostrich’s wing, or poured from an angry goddesses’ mountain, or snatched by Crocodile or Rabbit or Water Rat. Maui managed to get his grandmother to donate a flaming fingernail. In all these stories, now called myths, the storytellers are weaving strands of imagination into the warp of their lives and their world.

So, now let’s settle in front of an inspired fire. Let’s watch the mesmerizing flames and listen carefully as someone tells us about the motives and scheming of clever Coyote, and the bravery of doomed Prometheus, and the brilliance of trickster, Anansi. Cooperation triumphs over greed. Compassion triumphs over power. Intelligence triumphs over strength. We learn about so much more than stolen fire.

DJM Image - 2025